Breathe No More
by Shibby-One
Summary: I bleed... and I breathe... I breathe... no more... My response to this song in the form of a short story about Jou and Mai. Short and confusing, but somewhat simple. Written on a whim.


**Breathe No More**

_The car came from nowhere._

_The car reflected light from the streetlight like an illuminated mirror._

_The girls eyes closed as the darkness swallowed her senses._

_There had been an accident._

The mirror was her ocean.

It was the only kind thing she had to hold on to. Her body on the floor, her arms against the frame, her hands on the glass. Her tears staining the silver surface. Her breath misting the glass.

Was that all she had left? The false hope that an old, fragile item could tell her fate? Was she reduced to nothing but a useless, lifeless waste?

Was this… even her? She girl curled her legs into her white dress, her head against the glass. Her hair fell in sheaves around her shoulders, falling out of its elegant braid. She was unwanted. Uneeded. The only people who ever wanted her were her mother and father, and now the only love she knew had died.

"Oh, my God," she pleaded under her breath, "What have I done to anger you? Why must you throw me into such a place? Why? Please, oh God, please, explain it to me…" The girl lifted her head slightly, rain pouring down.

She wasn't in a vast room with tall, beautiful glass windows. A warm atmosphere. A beautiful villa on the edge of the Pacific…

It was raining on her. The girl's eyes fluttered open. Her mirror was the puddle she lay in. Her beautiful hair was her halo. Her shattered, torn dress was her robe. Her dying soul was her wings.

This girl… had been hurt.

Mai's eyes opened more. Her surroundings became clear to her eyes. She opened them wider, the area around her vast and dark. She couldn't speak. Had she just been dreaming? Why would she dream of such a thing? Of a time in her past when she cried over her reflection in the mirror.

Mai blinked. Her body was cold. The rain was pouring down. Sirens in the background. She could barely remember what had happened. Even as paramedics flipped her over, tried to get her blank expression to respond, she wondered. What had happened? Her body began to warm as the stretcher she was placed in was rolled into an ambulance.

She heard voices speaking of what happened.

"Yeah, yeah… A horrible accident—"

"—She didn't even have a chance—"

"—A car coming straight at her! What the hell?—"

"—Her car is a total wreck—"

"—I wonder if she'll survive?—"

Mai's eyes widened in surprise and anxiety. A paramedic had placed a mask that let cool, fresh air into her body. But Mai didn't want that. She didn't want the comfort of the hospital, people trying to fix her up after her accident. She wanted her love. The reason she was out that cold night. She was going to see him.

"W-wait…" she whispered weakly. One of the medics glanced her way.

"Yes?" she asked anxiously. Mai turned her eyes to the woman.

"I… Have to meet him," she said hoarsely. She coughed. Whenever she took a breath it felt as if something fell into her throat. The woman smiled gently.

"Is that where you were going? To meet someone? I'm sorry, dear," she said as she placed a hand on Mai's. "I don't think you're going to seem him for awhile." Mai just watched her. She wasn't seeing the woman. She was seeing a lonely little girl in front of a mirror, trying to find something good about herself. People always told her she was beautiful. But she didn't feel beautiful at all. She felt horrible, betrayed, ugly, dirty.

Her soul had been dirtied and trampled on.

She didn't realize the full extent of her accident until it was spelled out in front of her. She couldn't hear it, exactly. As soon as her body hit a softness, it gave in to her tired frame. The accident… She remembered. She remembered flying through the windshield. Hitting that car dead-on. It had run a red light. She didn't.

She remembered thinking about him just before the lights dispersed.

She had a brief dream about her past. Then she awoke. Now she was lying in her bed, lingering between the world of life and the world of sleep. Her eyes were closed and she was unconscious, but her body wanted to go deeper. This crash had brought too many painful things to the surface. Things she didn't need to see. She didn't know how. Maybe thinking that, finally, someone will take her little hand and lead her away from that old, cold mirror and into a beautiful world where she could live.

But that little girl still knelt there, her little eyes closed, her little hands on that huge, vast ocean of trust and betrayal.

Mai's thoughts were clouded over. They didn't make any sense. A warped, fast-motion story was forming in her head.

And then the world of sleep decided he wanted her to fall into his clutches.

"…Comatose?"

"Yes," Doctor Ichimei said, averting his eyes. "Yes, comatose." Jonouchi sighed deeply. He bit his lower lip and just shook his head. The young man backed up until his legs hit the bench, onto which he fell. He sat there, in a daze.

_…The accident left Kujaku Mai, all of twenty-nine years old just a few weeks prior to this accident, in a comatose state. Doctors still have to say whether this will be a reversible coma or not. Jonouchi Katsuya, twenty-one, the person she was going to see when the accident occured, says he'll pray that it's reversible._

"I… had to see it for myself," Jonouchi whispered. He shook his head again and closed his eyes. Ichimei closed his own eyes, then opened them again. He didn't have _time_ to stand here with this… this _kid._ He folded his arms briskly over a clipboard he was holding.

"If it makes you feel any better, young man," Ichimei said, "comatose patients can still hear. And it helps them to recover quicker. You can be in there for no more then ten minutes, understood?

_Ten minutes? What the hell?_ Jonouchi thought, but didn't argue. He stood and silently left the waiting area for this part of the hospital.

It was hard, walking down the silent hall. All the rooms in this place were for people like Mai. People who couldn't react to the sounds, if there were any. People who couldn't produce sound to be heard.

Jonouchi went over what he knew in his head. That when Mai was found, she was conscious, but not fully there. Something happened to her psychologically. Her brain waves were jumpy and all over the place. She would start to cry, then her body would convulse and the tears would dry from her pale cheeks.

Jonouchi entered her room. He saw her, lying silent and still in her bed. Jonouchi sat in the vacated chair next to her and leaned over her.

"Mai? Can you hear me?" he asked softly. Of course, he received no response. Jonouchi sighed.

"Do you… Do you know what happened to you, Mai?" he whispered. He leaned closer to her. He wasn't sure why he was explaining to her. He had been sure she, of all people, would know. But, from what the doctor said… she seems to have not been aware that there even was an accident.

"Mai… I'll tell you," Jonouchi said, staring down at her. "You were driving. It was raining. It was nighttime. You were coming to meet me… I had asked you to come with me.

"But a car came. Ran a red light. And hit you straight on. And you flew straight out the windshield, and kind of… r-rolled away. So they went to find you. And you were there, but wasn't there."

"And… a-and… Now you're here. The police say that… the man who hit you… his windshield was mirrored. The light probably reflected into your eyes. I know you have some strange thing against mirrors… Did it hurt you, Mai? Were you hurt?" Jonouchi touched her elegant hand. "Are you hurting? Is there a way I can make it better for you?"

Her hand twitched. Her eyelids fluttered. But she didn't awaken.

"Please," Jonouchi begged, leaning over her, "Please, if there is anyway I can make it better… Please, just… let me know. Okay?" Jonouchi stayed where he was, staring down at the girl.

She didn't respond. She could barely hear him. She loved him and could barely hear him.

The mirror was beginning to crack inside her mind. The rain was letting up outside of her house. That was a good sign.

"Mai? Mai? Maaaaaaai? You in here?" a voice asked. The little girl in front of the mirror turned in her little white dress to see a little boy standing across the waxed floor. He was hanging onto the doorhandle.

"You okay?" he asked, concerned. Mai closed her eyes.

"Momma and Papa are gone," she said softly. "And no one wants me." The boy frowned and walked barefoot towards her. He extended his hand.

"I want you," he said, smiling. Mai looked up.

The mirror shattered. The pieces fell and blew around them like a fairy tale. Mai smiled and took his hand. The glass flew around them, surrounding them. It cut their arms and their legs, but they didn't bleed. They cut large indents into their backs. But they didn't bleed. Not blood. What they bled was white and feathery.

Beautiful wings erupted from them both. Mai closed her eyes as the room became transparent. She grabbed the boy's other hand and closed her eyes. She leaned in and kissed him.

On the outside of her mind, in her comatose body, she smiled. Jonouchi stared down and smiled as well, his tears flowing down his cheeks.

"It will be okay, Mai," he whispered. "I love you."

…

**Shibby**


End file.
